Benchmarks near the day`s high; pharma stocks witnessed bargain buying

The key equity benchmarks were currently trading near the day`s high in mid-morning trade. The Nifty hovered near the 16,500 mark. Pharma stocks witnessed some bit of value buying after declining in the past four sessions.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index, both gained 0.19%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,635 shares rose and 1,463 shares fell. A total of 156 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index rose 1.30% to 12,502. The index had declined 2.91% in the past four sessions.

Laurus Labs (up 2.56%), Zydus Lifesciences (up 2.29%), Divis Laboratories (up 1.83%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.78%) and Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries (up 1.67%) were the top index gainers.

Among the other gainers were Torrent Pharmaceuticals (up 1.49%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.47%), Cipla (up 1.34%), Abbott India (up 1.31%) and Alkem Laboratories (up 1.22%).

On the other hand, Alembic Pharmaceuticals (down 0.71%), Gland Pharma (down 0.42%) and Strides Pharma Science (down 0.36%) moved lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC declined 1.80%. The company`s consolidated net profit fell 33.6% to Rs 102.84 crore on 18.6% decline in total income to Rs 273.70 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22. Total QAAUM including alternate assets stood at Rs 2,92,600 crore for the quarter ending 30 June 2022.

Shoppers Stop rallied 7.73%. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 22.83 crore in Q1 FY23 as compared to a net loss of Rs 104.89 crore in Q1 FY22. Consolidated net sales surged to Rs 948.44 crore in the quarter ended 30 June 2022 from Rs 205.23 crore recorded in Q1 FY22.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks are trading lower on Wednesday as Australia`s inflation rose and investors looked forward to the Fed`s policy decision. Prices in Australia rose 6.1% in the second quarter compared to the same period a year ago, up from 5.1% in the first quarter of the year.

US stocks ended sharply lower Tuesday as a profit warning by Walmart dragged down retail shares and exceptionally weak consumer confidence data also fueled fears about spending.

At the end of its two-day monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, the Fed is widely expected to raise its main interest rate by 0.75 percentage points.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for India for the current financial year by 80 basis points to 7.4%. A similar downgrade has been made to the growth forecast for FY24, which now stands at 6.1% as against 6.9% earlier.

"For India, the revision reflects mainly less favourable external conditions and more rapid policy tightening," the IMF said on July 26 in an update to its World Economic Outlook report.

The IMF on Tuesday cut its global GDP forecasts for 2022 and 2023. It now expects growth to come in at 3.2% this year, 0.4 percentage points lower than its April projection.

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